Slow response to Sudan Darfur crisis puts thousands of refugees at risk: MSF
NAIROBI, May 11 (AFP) — Tens of thousands of people who have sought refuge in Chad from the war in Sudan’s Darfur region are threatened by hunger and disease, and their living conditions are getting worse, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said Tuesday.
MSF blamed in particular the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, for not doing enough to help the refugees, who number around 110,000.
“Conditions for refugees in Chad are now so bad that hunger and disease are severely endangering the lives of tens of thousands of people,” MSF said in an emailed statement.
“Malnutrition is rising, camps are insufficient and overcrowded, there is scarce food and water and many refugees remain at risk from violent cross-border attacks by Sudanese militia,” the statement added.
The UN has described the crisis in Darfur, where it accuses the Sudanese government of conducting a policy of ethnic cleansing in response to a rebel uprising, as the world’s worst current humanitarian catastrophe.
At least 10,000 people are thought to have died since the conflict began in February 2003, and an estimated million people have been displaced, with about 100,000 of them now living across the Chadian border.
“Although UNHCR and international NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have had teams on the ground in Chad for months working on the emergency, progress has been painfully slow and the crisis is escalating,” warned MSF.
UNCHR spokesman Ron Redmond told journalists in Geneva earlier Tuesday that the agency’s work has been hampered by conditions on the ground that made the situation “one of the most difficult humanitarian operations anywhere.”
“These include a vast, insecure and remote area of operations, stretching along some 600 kilometres (400 miles) of border land, severe logistical challenges, including transport difficulties, water shortages for growing camp populations, which also makes finding new sites extremely difficult, a looming shortage of fuel and firewood, and, last but certainly not least, slow funding,” said Redmond in remarks quoted on the UNCHR’s website.
He noted that UNCHR had only received about 14 million of the 21 million dollars needed for the operation.
“We have been urging the international aid community to make a more determined effort in Chad since January,” Donatella Massai, head of MSF’s operations in Chad, said in the medical charity’s statement.
“It seems that the message has not been heard, so we are repeating it louder. The health of refugees has already deteriorated because sufficient water, food and shelter have not been organised,” she said.
She went on to call for “more supplies, more aid staff on the ground, greater efficiency by UNHCR and international NGOs, whatever it takes.”